Groggy-eyed passengers on an early Thursday morning flight to Bhopal from Delhi got a bolt from the blue when they were evacuated from Jet Airways flight 9W 2654 on the tarmac of the Indira Gandhi International Airport.
Pilots spotted an alarm indicating a fire in the right engine of the ATR 72 aircraft before take off around 6 a.m. The flight was grounded as a safety precaution and 70-odd passengers were evacuated.
“The ATR aircraft has since been grounded at Delhi for inspection by the Jet Airways engineering staff. All the guests were deplaned safely and taken back to the terminal building without any event. The passengers were sent to Bhopal in a different aircraft at 08:50 hours,” the airline said in a release.
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The Directorate General of Civil Aviation is probing the incident.
On August 8, Press Trust of India reported that another Jet Airways aircraft from Mumbai to Brussels anomalously hurtled for 5,000 feet over Turkey. The Boeing 777-300 ER was flying at an altitude of 34,000 feet when it plunged, although it later regained altitude.